Marauders seek the less-travelled road

It may sound a tad over the top to say McMaster’s football season is riding on Saturday’s game against Laurier. After all, it is still just a regular-season game and the Marauders have both qualified for the post-season and ensured themselves of a home date.

So this is all just hype then, right? It’s not really that important. Actually, it is. Over the past seven seasons, the 14 teams that have finished first or second have all advanced to the Yates Cup. The bye week to rest bodies and prepare, mixed with home-field advantage, has proven to be a potent advantage. Not a single team that finished third or lower has been able to break through. That’s what’s riding on this one. Mac is 6-1. Laurier is 5-2. If the Marauders win — kickoff is 1 p.m. at University Stadium in Waterloo — they’ll finish second behind Western and likely knock Laurier down to fourth. Not only does that give them a week off, but it ensures they wouldn’t have to play the defending champs again until the provincial championship game, if they get there.

If McMaster loses, however, it finishes tied with the Golden Hawks. Since head-to-head is the first tiebreaker, Laurier would get second place and the Marauders would fall to third. That likely means a first-round matchup with a beatable Queen’s team but then a trip back to Laurier for the semifinal. If they win that, the next week would almost certainly be a road game at Western.

That’s a nasty, physical path to travel for a shot at eventually playing in a Vanier Cup on home turf. To avoid it, McMaster’s task is pretty clear.

The three times Laurier has lost this season — including a pre-season game against Concordia — the Golden Hawks scored fewer than 20 points. In all their wins, on the other hand, they’ve put up 38 or more. If Mac’s province-best defence is at its usual level, it should be able to give its offence a chance.

Meanwhile, in Laurier’s wins over Carleton, Waterloo and York, the opponent scored 35, 24 and 31.

This is a team that can be scored upon. Which means if Mac’s offence is working, this is a winnable game. And if they don’t win? Playoff success won’t be impossible from outside one of those top two spots, of course. In 2008 Ottawa finished fifth with a 4-4 record and made it to the championship game. It’s happened other times before. It can be done.

It just makes things a whole lot more difficult.